26/08/2026
groups? Wouldn't 1:1 be easier?"
I get asked this often. Here is the honest answer.
In the 1960s, the psychiatrist Irvin Yalom set out to identify what group work does that individual work cannot. His answer (eleven therapeutic factors that operate only in groups) is still the foundational text on the subject, taught in every clinical program in the world.
In an art group, something else happens. Recognition doesn't require anyone to speak. You look across the table, at someone else's painting, and something in it feels familiar before a word is exchanged. That silent recognition is doing real work, which is why art groups reach people that verbal-only work sometimes cannot.
But being in a group is not automatically therapeutic. Unstructured groups can compound harm. What makes a group healing is thoughtful facilitation: real boundaries, no obligation to disclose, a structure held by someone trained to hold it. Not all "group experiences" are the same. The person behind the room matters.
If you have been doing your inner work alone, that has real value. It also has its own ceiling. Some things only happen in a room with other people who came for the same reasons. Not because those people "fix" you. Because being witnessed while you tend to yourself, alongside others tending to themselves, changes what tending feels like.
If this resonated:
- Online workshops run weekly, from wherever you are.
- In-person workshops in Lisbon, monthly.
- Corporate teams whose people are quietly tired of doing emotional life alone in the same building where they work most hours.
Link in bio. Whenever you're ready.
📎 Yalom, I. D., & Leszcz, M. (2020). The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy (6th ed.).
